We all know DX played a major part in the AE era. I don't think any of us would dispute that if we were being truthful. But with HHH in charge of the WWE it makes sense that he would emphasize their run, whether it's revisionist history or not.

Here is an honest question, were they as important as the WWE/HHH would lead us to believe?

My opinion is they are not AS important but that's just my opinion, I do believe they were great, just not the greatest faction of all time, which I feel the current WWE history would try and lead us to believe. What is your opinion?

Agree with you entirely. Their run in 97 and 98 were very good, but afterwards they were pure trash. When I went through their segments while rewatching 1998, for every great segment they had a weak one as well. They did make Vince a ton of money, so I don't blame the WWE for talking them up. But I would easily put teams like the Horsemen, the Freebirds, Evolution, and even The Shield above them.

I believe that the premise of D Generation X, their name and antics are all the embodiment of one half of what the style of the Attitude Era was: brash, edgy, controversial, very blunt/in your face mixed with "adult humor" and certainly completing the burial of the old traditions of "rasslin" (The New York territory had obviously already had the blueprint for some time). I think given DX's strength as symbolism for WWE's financially most prosperous time, I think that is where the augmentation comes in.

In reality, DX was a strong faction, but I always felt that at least within the scope of the main event scene, the individual entities were larger than the group, particularly when HHH busted out in 98 ahead of the pack. I think the revisionist history comes in too when you look at DX on paper is stronger than actuality. Chief example, Austin's completion of his meteoric rise can be read as Austin vs DX, and seeing how the ratings tide shifted sharply afterwards, DX could with time passing be seen as a big cause playing off Austin, but I would much more attribute Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson was a red hot sports commodity that brought in a slew of perspective audience members from the sporting world that many didn't know about wrestling, and as they like the current wrestling fans held the very strong vicarious connection of Austin's character performance; they fell in love with the character and surrounding zany product and stayed on board, but Tyson drew the crucial first watch in off his star power, DX was just the platform for Tyson to join. I hope this somewhat answers your question.

Edit: Greatest staple in my eyes? Not even close. Greatest in WWE's eyes? While not "home grown" and not as explicitly expressed, there still seems to be that reverence for the Four Horsemen even in WWE, leading me to think that is where they would lead.

DX is going to always be a little overrated in my opinion. They were a very good faction and all, whichever version you want to speak of... but I've never thought of them as one of the greatest groups ever. The 97-98 thing was the best. DX was raw and what they were doing each week felt genuine. HHH should have never taken over after WM14. However, it was an easy way to elevate his own stock.

DX in 2006 is a joke. I'm sorry, but I never bought into all the buildup "OMG Shawn did a crotch chop...HHH did a crotch chop in his match too" stuff. I didn't need to see them reform and bring it back. I get that it was probably cool for all the new fans who didn't see the original version, but the 2006 stuff kinda took some value away in my book. Then I don't even want to talk about the times they kept doing it for special events over the next few years...

The way I see DX now in retrospective is that they along with Goldust and Sable/Sunny were used to test the waters and push the limits to parametrize attitude era as to how far they can go. They had to tone down Goldust, tune up Sable/Sunny and make DX more moderate (it became more moderate when it came under HHH). In that way, it was a key aspect and very important part when it came to evolution of attitude era.

LOVED them in 97 with Shawn as the leader though. Because it's Shawn fuckin' Michaels!

Quote:

It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so fucking what.

I believe that the premise of D Generation X, their name and antics are all the embodiment of one half of what the style of the Attitude Era was: brash, edgy, controversial, very blunt/in your face mixed with "adult humor" and certainly completing the burial of the old traditions of "rasslin" (The New York territory had obviously already had the blueprint for some time). I think given DX's strength as symbolism for WWE's financially most prosperous time, I think that is where the augmentation comes in.

In reality, DX was a strong faction, but I always felt that at least within the scope of the main event scene, the individual entities were larger than the group, particularly when HHH busted out in 98 ahead of the pack. I think the revisionist history comes in too when you look at DX on paper is stronger than actuality. Chief example, Austin's completion of his meteoric rise can be read as Austin vs DX, and seeing how the ratings tide shifted sharply afterwards, DX could with time passing be seen as a big cause playing off Austin, but I would much more attribute Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson was a red hot sports commodity that brought in a slew of perspective audience members from the sporting world that many didn't know about wrestling, and as they like the current wrestling fans held the very strong vicarious connection of Austin's character performance; they fell in love with the character and surrounding zany product and stayed on board, but Tyson drew the crucial first watch in off his star power, DX was just the platform for Tyson to join. I hope this somewhat answers your question.

Edit: Greatest staple in my eyes? Not even close. Greatest in WWE's eyes? While not "home grown" and not as explicitly expressed, there still seems to be that reverence for the Four Horsemen even in WWE, leading me to think that is where they would lead.

GREAT POST!!!

DX is an all-time great, but I find it laughable WWE tries to make them seem innovative and impacting the business like the 4 Horsemen or NWO. I did like HBK and HHH tonight though doing the history.

However, it can't be denied imo that DX is really the NWO. I believe the extreme stuff was done to make it seem different, but the anti-establishment stuff is pure NWO. I love how the origins of DX is always never brought up as HBK proclaimed he was the actual leader of the NWO by having his Kliq expand down south to take over all of wrestling. THAT is a crucial play which caught people's attention. I know why it is never brought up though as it will show it originally piggy backed the idea of the NWO/Kliq. I HATE the damn 00's version though with the exception of HHH and HBK mocking Vince and Shane lol.

It's a marketing thing. There arguably isn't another faction associated with WWF's Attitude Era more important than DX, except The Corporation. But what is Vince supposed to do, sell t-shirts with his own face on them and have white glow stick pens?

It's a marketing thing. There arguably isn't another faction associated with WWF's Attitude Era more important than DX, except The Corporation. But what is Vince supposed to do, sell t-shirts with his own face on them and have white glow stick pens?

I get this more than anyone, but this only truly works when DX was around weekly. They could do the same thing with NWO if they wanted to for the same reason. One problem I have with these Monday Night War episodes (like tonight's) is that WWE always seem it is necessary to tell at the end how they won. Everyone knows this obviously.

Like tonight they made the cruiserweights at the end for WCW look so outdated and played, BUT then show how cruiserweights like Kidman were added to flesh out the WCW buy out. Obviously, guys like Mysterio and so on were still WCW at the end who ended up being integral in the early to mid 00's WWE.

It's really more WWE just loving to pat itself on the back more than anything a lot of the time. Nothing wrong with that now and then, but doing it could end up making some of the truly legendary stuff seem over rated to fans in future years.